Hoosiers Now

Indiana Makes QB Decision, Prepares for Ohio State to Play 2 Quarterbacks in Season Opener

Indiana football coach Tom Allen was asked Wednesday how the Hoosiers are preparing for Ohio State since coach Ryan Day has not yet decided between quarterbacks Kyle McCord and Devin Brown. Here's what the Allen had to say.

Daniel Olinger

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Ohio State football always has an embarrassment of riches. That's never been clearer than coach Ryan Day saying he can't choose a starting quarterback for the 2023 college football season because both options are so good. 

"“If I sat here right now, I think that both deserve to play,” Day said to Ohio State media during fall camp. 

The two Ohio State quarterbacks are Kyle McCord and Devin Brown. Arriving in Columbus in 2021 as a four-star prospect from Philadelphia, McCord has been thought to be the man in waiting the past two years. He was C.J. Stroud's primary backup in 2022, and the favorite to win the 2023 job entering the offseason at Ohio State.

Brown, however, has clearly made up ground. He came to Ohio State in 2022 as a four-star quarterback out of Texas, and after missing time in the spring of 2023 with an injury, he's made his case to surpass McCord as the starter despite being the younger player. 

Day said both McCord and Brown graded out as champions during the Buckeyes' Saturday scrimmage. He said he polled his entire coaching staff, asking them who they think should be named the starter. The result was a completely even split vote between McCord and Brown.

When asked if people could expect to see both McCord and Brown take snaps against Indiana, Day said that would be a fair expectation. 

"We’re going to have a quarterback and we might have two," the Ohio State coach said. "If they deserve to play, they’re going to play."

Of course, coach Tom Allen and the Indiana Hoosiers have their own quarterback battle in Bloomington. 

Allen said Wednesday the team has decided internally on the starting quarterback, but won't publicly reveal who has won the battle between Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby prior to the Ohio State game. 

It's clear why the Hoosiers want to keep that information close to the vest. Allen and Co. want Ohio State vaguely preparing for both Jackson and Sorsby rather than focusing on just one of the young quarterbacks. 

How Indiana has to prepare for Ohio State's two quarterbacks is an entirely different animal. While Allen won't reveal who has won the QB battle at IU, it's evident that he only wants to play one on Sept. 2. That's in contrast to how the Indiana defense has to prepare for the Buckeye quarterbacks, both of whom they're likely to see in the season opener. Drive-to-drive, the Hoosiers have to have those laser-focused plans ready for both McCord and Brown. 

"It creates challenges. Because there are two different quarterbacks, we have to go through and plan for both," Allen said. "When you expect both of them to play, and it looks like that's going to be the case, then you have to have plans for each individual. Obviously, their core concepts are going to be consistent, but the skillset of each player is really different. Both [McCord and Brown] are very, very talented players. Both do different things in a different way."

McCord and Brown both have talented arms, can create in the run game with their legs and are stylistically similar, though Brown is considered the slightly more mobile option of the two. 

Allen finds the two to be dissimilar enough to require significant and distinct game planning from the Indiana coaching staff. 

"If they were identical, it might be a little bit easier, schematically, to have a plan," Allen said. "There are definitely some situational things that are going to differ with those two."

It's come down to a philosophical debate for Ohio State — do you go with the safe option in McCord, or swing for the fences with the younger Brown? McCord is older and has seen much more playing time and practice at OSU than Brown has. But the Buckeyes aren't projected to win the Big Ten for the first time in a long time, and they might be reloading this year with a lot of new players. Starting Brown in 2023 might give Day and the Buckeyes their best chance to take the conference back from Michigan and Jim Harbaugh in 2024. 

Regardless of whether Ohio State has a nominal starter by Sept. 2 or just goes with the two-quarterback system to start the year, the lack of clarity creates hurdles for the Hoosiers to overcome. While the uncertainty Day has created for Indiana seems unintentional, Allen and his staff intentionally want to force indecision for Ohio State by not telling the public whether Jackson or Sorsby is QB1 in Bloomington. 

It's why even as he's decided on a starter, Allen continues to talk about both Jackson and Sorsby in the same light. 

"I feel really good about the process we [have] gone through," Allen said. "And I feel like we’ve got two guys that we can win with."

Even if the choices for quarterback in a position room are on uneven ground, there's a benefit to pretending that they're deadlocked. Allen knows it. Day know it. Everybody knows it. And Allen knows that Ohio State playing both McCord and Brown could make things even tricker for the Hoosiers on Sept. 2 when the Buckeyes come to town. 

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Daniel Olinger
DANIEL OLINGER

Daniel Olinger is a Sports Illustrated/FanNation reporter for HoosiersNow.com. He graduated from Northwestern University with degrees in both journalism and economics. 

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